A DEMOCRATIC SENATOR, on the lack of shutdown negotiations: “In the past, I've been frustrated because I wasn't in the room. Today, I'm not sure there IS a room.”

EMAIL DU JOUR, from a Democratic aide: “Not much give in the default date [Oct. 17]. Maybe a few days. What everybody is missing is Boehner didn't say anything new about defaulting. He was always going to need Dem votes to pass a debt ceiling. He has 20-30 Repubs who have vowed to never vote for any debt ceiling. Boehner has not backed off one thing about trying a debt increase to something in return. [That] just isn't going to happen. … He won't get anything because there is nothing to give over the debt limit. Nothing. The President and Leader Reid couldn't be more in sync over this.”

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ENDGAME – Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Partners: “The next important event will likely be early next week when the House GOP unveils its initial ‘ask’ to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling (entitlement reform, spending cuts, tax reform, etc.). A final outcome of continued negotiations and the construction of future fiscal cliffs is not the worst possible outcome. Washington will continue to kick the can -- until the can kicks back.”

THE BIG PICTURE – The cover of The Economist, “No way to run a country,” shows the Mount Rushmore face of Thomas Jefferson turning to glare at a squabbling Obama and Boehner -- “America's government shutdown … The Land of the Free is starting to look ungovernable. Enough is enough”: “Republicans are setting a precedent which … would make America ungovernable. Voters have seen fit to give their party control of one arm of government—the House of Representatives—while handing the Democrats the White House and the Senate. If a party with such a modest electoral mandate threatens to shut down government unless the other side repeals a law it does not like, apparently settled legislation will always be vulnerable to repeal by the minority. Washington will be permanently paralysed and America condemned to chronic uncertainty. … Electoral reforms, such as letting independent commissions draw district boundaries, would not suddenly make America governable, but they would help.” See the cover. http://goo.gl/WY5ZvRRead the editorial. http://goo.gl/VzH3DP

GEORGE WILL, leaving ABC after 32 years, makes his Fox News debut TODAY on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” This weekend is his inaugural “Fox News Sunday” hit.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE – “Obama cancels Asia trip,” by AFP’s Stephen Collinson: “A White House statement late Thursday confirmed Obama would miss the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali and the East Asia summit in Brunei next week. The president had already cancelled plans to visit Malaysia and the Philippines, but had delayed taking a decision on the summit meetings, both seen as an opportunity to push important foreign policy initiatives in the region. … ‘The President made this decision based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of a shutdown, and his determination to continue pressing his case that Republicans should immediately allow a vote to reopen the government.’ … Secretary of State John Kerry would lead the US delegations … in place of Obama …

“Obama will be missing a chance to rub shoulders with leaders like China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin, key players in ongoing geopolitical crises from Syria to North Korea. … [T]he exit of administration heavyweights like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and national security advisor Tom Donilon -- both closely identified with the pivot [to Asia]-- have deprived US Asia policy of a figurehead. Senior administration officials … point to repeated visits to Asia by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and noted their commitment to concluding a Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) region-wide trade deal as proof of US commitment.”

CNN’s JAKE TAPPER anchored his 4 p.m. “The Lead” from Capitol Hill, about an hour after the lockdown had been lifted, then anchored an 11 p.m. shutdown special – one of several he has done this week -- from the Capitol.

PALACE INTRIGUE – “Bad blood: Four feuding leaders,” by John Bresnahan and Manu Raju, with Burgess Everett: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid privately told fellow Democratic senators this week what he really thought of Speaker John Boehner. ‘He’s a coward,’ Reid angrily said, referring to Boehner’s private push for federal health care contributions for lawmakers and their staff. Boehner later backed legislation to end those subsidies in order to win points with House GOP conservatives. … Reid’s outburst — [at] a Senate Democratic policy luncheon on Tuesday — is the latest example of how the relationship between the nation’s top political leaders is now brimming with acrimony, distrust and pettiness … The bad blood is making it harder for the two sides to trust each other in the increasingly bitter fight to reopen the government and keep the nation fiscally solvent. Boehner, Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have more than a century of congressional service between them, as well as a string of legendary political and legislative wins and losses. Yet there are times when the ‘Big Four,’ as the party leaders are referred to on Capitol Hill, seem more like long-bickering members of a city council rather than the leaders of a great nation.

“Not only has the Reid-Boehner relationship sunk to a new low, but so have the once-collegial ties between Reid and McConnell. Reid and Pelosi both think Boehner is more concerned about saving his own neck as speaker than doing the right thing for the country as he pushes proposals to defund or delay Obamacare, which almost certainly won’t happen with President Obama sitting in the White House. … McConnell and Boehner [claim] Reid helped provoke a shutdown in order to help his party politically next year. McConnell has increasingly suspected that Reid and his closest confidantes have breached Senate protocol by engaging directly in the Democratic effort to defeat him in 2014. But even House GOP leaders privately question whether McConnell is too distracted by his own 2014 reelection campaign to be a full player in the current government-funding fight. … Asked to respond to Reid’s remarks calling the speaker a ‘coward,’ Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said: ‘We have to work together if we’re going to get anything done, and all this bullshit — the name-calling, leaking private emails — just makes it harder to do the work the American people sent us here to do.’

“Perhaps the only two leaders who have a productive bipartisan relationship these days are McConnell and Vice President Biden — but both men are taking a backseat role in the current government funding fight. … The one man who agreed with [McConnell at the White House meeting on Wed.] was Biden — a former senator who brokered deals with McConnell in the past, who responded to McConnell’s outburst by saying that he hoped the Republican would be back next year … At the end of the session, McConnell walked out with Biden, as Boehner headed to the microphones to bash Democrats and Obama for refusing to negotiate. But Reid dismissed suggestions Thursday that McConnell and Biden may need to take a larger role in the talks, as they did in the 2011 debt debate and the 2012 fiscal cliff fight. ‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ Reid told POLITICO. ‘All we want is the government open, [and to] take care of the debt ceiling. We’ll talk about anything they want to talk about [after that]. I outlined everything. There isn’t anything we won’t talk about.’ …

“Mike Sommers, Boehner’s chief of staff, described David Krone, Reid’s top aide, as ‘a snake’ after Sommers’ e-mails were leaked detailing how the speaker secretly sought to protect federal contributions to staffers’ and lawmakers’ health insurance coverage. … ‘Some recent stories have even suggested the speaker’s keeping government shut because I hurt his feelings,’ Reid told reporters … ‘If that’s true, I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings. … We met the first week we came back in September, and [Boehner] told me what he wanted was a clean CR and a $988 [billion] number … The exact bill that he now refuses to let the House vote on, that was our negotiation. I didn’t twist his arm, he twisted mine a little bit to get that number. … I said, “John, I can’t do that.” He said, “You’ve got to do that.” … He couldn’t live up to that, so he has been doing gymnastics with himself ever since then.’ … At the [White House] meeting, Reid slammed Boehner for suggesting … a ‘grand bargain’ … McConnell repeated a speech he’s made dozens of times, saying that divided government is a time to make big deals. Obama reportedly scoffed at his pitch.” http://goo.gl/nfpGEV

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BOEHNER BEHIND THE SCENES – N.Y. Times 2-col. lead, “BOEHNER PLEDGES TO AVOID DEFAULT, REPUBLICANS SAY: As Tensions Rise Over Shutdown, Private Promises to Avert a Deeper Crisis,” by Ashley Parker and Annie Lowrey: “Speaker John A. Boehner has privately told Republican lawmakers … that he would not allow a potentially more crippling federal default … Boehner’s comments, recounted by multiple lawmakers, that he would use a combination of Republican and Democratic votes to increase the federal debt limit if necessary appeared aimed at reassuring his colleagues — and nervous financial markets — that he did not intend to let the economic crisis spiral further out of control. … One lawmaker … said Mr. Boehner suggested he would be willing to violate the so-called Hastert Rule to pass a debt-limit increase. The informal rule refers to a policy of not bringing to the floor any measure that does not have a majority of Republican votes.” http://goo.gl/B1kH4n

--PUNDIT PREP – Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan point out: “In January, when Congress last raised the debt ceiling, he needed Democrats to pass the bill — 86 Democrats joined with 199 Republicans. The Aug. 2011 Budget Control Act, which also raised the debt ceiling, was passed with Democrats, as well: 95 Democrats voted with 174 Republicans.”

--YESTERDAY’S LUNCH MEETING -- “Boehner to allies: I want a fiscal deal,” by Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan: “Speaker John Boehner told a small group of his closest congressional allies Thursday afternoon that he planned to use the upcoming confluence of the debt ceiling and continuing resolution to get a large-scale budget deal. He just doesn’t know how he’s going to do it. Boehner is privately mulling frameworks to set up a budget agreement with Democrats and the White House … The remarks – his most definitive to date – came at a 12:30 lunch in his Capitol suite with a gaggle of Republicans he calls ‘Team Boehner.’ Boehner urged the roughly 20 GOP lawmakers in the room to stick together and help navigate the rocky politics of a government shutdown and upcoming debt ceiling debate. The meeting was described by several sources present. The speaker told those gathered that changes to Obamacare should be ‘part’ of the party’s budgetary message …

“There is fear inside leadership that if they don’t talk about the Affordable Care Act, conservative lawmakers will accuse them of abandoning the party’s pledge to defang the law. But it’s clear Boehner is aiming beyond Obamacare to entitlements and a rewrite of the Tax Code. … Senate Democrats and the White House say they aren’t negotiating over the budget until Congress raises the debt ceiling and reopens government. Boehner, weary of the failure of the supercommittee, is considering alternative frameworks to reach a large-scale agreement. Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Budget Chairman Paul Ryan are intricately involved in this strategy. The speaker did not think this shutdown is ending anytime soon, according to people present. Asked by a colleague if Republicans could last two weeks in this difficult political climate, Boehner said he was not sure. … The House and Senate are expected to spend at least part of this weekend in session, in an attempt to show that Congress is working during a shutdown.” http://goo.gl/yk3zPP

CASH GUSHER FOR “DEFUND MOVEMENT” – Kimberley A. Strassel’s “Potomac Watch” column in WSJ, “The Defunding Way of Fundraising: The defund ringleaders are raising money off fellow Republicans. That won't expand the GOP's appeal”: “[W]hat guys like former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (who is behind groups like … [Senate Conservatives Fund, which Sen. Ted Cruz has fundraised for]) know is that there aren't currently many dollars in attacking Democrats. There are, however, a lot of conservatives who are angry that Mitt Romney failed to win … In August alone—the height of the defund hoopla—[SCF] raised $1.53 million. While SCF claims its mission is to ‘elect true conservatives to the U.S. Senate,’ it has not spent one dollar this year in support of a Senate candidate … The donations … sometimes go for the Washington trappings these groups decry. SCF, a small operation, in recent months has spent $26,000 on an interior decorator.” http://goo.gl/7ZGI0U

--AP LATEST – “Mother: Woman killed in DC chase was depressed,” by AP’s Eric Tucker: “A Connecticut woman who was shot to death by police after a car chase that began when she tried to breach a barrier at the White House suffered from post-partum depression, her mother said. … Two law enforcement officials identified the driver as 34-year-old Miriam Carey, of Stamford, Conn. She was traveling with a 1-year-old girl who avoided serious injury and was taken into protective custody. … Carey's mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News on Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, last August. ‘A few months later, she got sick … She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized.’ Idella Carey said her daughter had ‘no history of violence’ and she didn't know why she was in Washington on Thursday. She said she thought Carey was taking Erica to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut.”

ANDREA MITCHELL receives the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award at a gala dinner tonight. Andrea, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of MSNBC’s 1 p.m. “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” has covered six presidents, and has reported from North Korea, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan, Haiti and many other hot spots. This summer, she celebrated 35 years with NBC News, and received a surprise on-air call from Tom Brokaw, from his cabin in Montana. Andrea first covered the White House during both of Ronald Reagan's terms. During the 1988 Republican National Convention, she beat both the competition and presidential candidate George H.W. Bush with the announcement that Dan Quayle had been chosen as running mate. She was also a panelist in the final Bush-Dukakis presidential debate.

Andrea joined NBC News in 1978 as a general-assignment correspondent in Washington. In 1979, she was named NBC energy correspondent, reporting on the energy crisis and Three Mile Island. Before joining NBC, she was reporter for the CBS affiliate in D.C. From 1967 to 1976, she was at KYW radio and KYW-TV in Philadelphia. Mitchell received a B.A. degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania where she is a trustee and chairman of the Annenberg School Advisory Board. She also serves on the board of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and is a member of the Gridiron Club. The Fourth Estate Award is the highest honor bestowed on a journalist by the National Press Club. Previous winners include Bob Woodward, Jim Lehrer, Walter Cronkite, Christiane Amanpour and David S. Broder.

SUNDAY SO FAR – Treasury Secretary Jack Lew does all five shows, plus:

CLINTON FOUNDATION and NEXT GENERATION announce … “‘Too Small to Fail’ releases strategic roadmap for new campaign: Op-ed from Secretary Hillary Clinton and new report highlight action plan to help parents and children succeed, including initial public education campaign to raise awareness of the lifelong impact of a ‘poverty of words’: “San Francisco -- Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of Next Generation and The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation released its first campaign blueprint, … which lays out a rationale for prioritizing early childhood development in the United States. … One of the conclusions … is that many parents are unaware that they can have a lifelong impact on their children’s learning starting from birth, and that small acts—like talking to their babies for just a few minutes a day—can make a difference for the better. Secretary Clinton’s op-ed … states: ‘Studies have found that by age four, children in middle and upper class families hear 15 million more words than children in working-class families, and 30 million more words than children in families on welfare. This disparity in hearing words from parents and caregivers translates directly into a disparity in learning words.’” www.toosmall.org/strategicroadmap

DEBATE, 1 P.M. TODAY -- “Cory Booker’s lackluster campaign,” by Maggie Haberman: “Cory Booker is all but certain to win [the Oct. 16] New Jersey special election for U.S. Senate. But as polls show Republican rival Steve Lonegan tightening the race, Booker is getting an uncomfortable reminder that he will have to campaign hard to defend the seat just a year from now, when he’d be up for a full term. Booker faces a tough test of the truncated race against Lonegan [today], when the Newark mayor and the former Bogota mayor face off in their first debate. For Lonegan, it’s a chance to test whether Booker has a glass jaw. For Booker, it’s a chance to show he is engaged in the race, and not the celebrity candidate who’s off giving speeches at colleges … It’s that sense of distance that has caused the race to close in recent days – so much so that Booker is underperforming Republican Gov. Chris Christie in a blue state. … If [Booker] wins by a relatively close margin, it could be an invitation to other Republicans to try their hand at challenging him next year. At a minimum, it would take the sheen off a national brand that Booker has cultivated for years. …

“[Booker] has become rather relaxed since [an August primary], and has resumed traveling out of state frequently to raise money, a fact that Lonegan has made great hay of in radio ads…. . The latest Monmouth poll … showed Booker at 53 percent to 40 percent for Lonegan. … Christie leads his Democratic rival, Barbara Buono, by about 20 points — despite the natural advantage Democrats have in the blue state. … In a sign that Booker knows his lead is shrinking, he launched his first attack ad against Lonegan this week, painting the Republican as ‘too extreme’ for the Garden State. Discipline has not come easily to Booker, who … runs an impossibly active Twitter account, with more than 1 million followers.

“Unable or unwilling to avoid the national spotlight, he’s given ill-advised, rambling interviews, including one with The Washington Post’s Jason Horowitz in which Booker held forth on speculation that he might be gay. … The campaign, according to people close to him, has been a jarring experience for someone accustomed to nearly universal glowing media coverage over the years, starting with the 2006 insurgent campaign against Newark Mayor Sharpe James that helped him take on the reformer mantle. … An unabashed conservative, [Lonegan] has made clear he is siding with Republicans in the government shutdown, a contrast to Christie, who has tried to invoke “leadership” to distance himself from a dysfunctional Washington. … Booker has done little to tie Lonegan to a troubled national Republican brand, despite endorsements from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and the Freedomworks PAC. Instead of finding his stride as the race progresses, Booker appears to be running out the clock.”

FRAME GAME: HOT 2014 GUBERNATORIAL RACES – “Government shutdown: Bobby Jindal blames ‘leaders across the board,’” by Alexander Burns and James Hohmann: “In a briefing for reporters at the Republican Governors Association headquarters, [Louisiana Gov. Bobby] Jindal announced that RGA would be launching digital ads tomorrow touting the work of GOP governors in pioneering ‘conservative solutions’ in the states — a sharp difference from the current gridlock in D.C. The RGA chairman said the advertisements were in the works long before the shutdown became inevitable and were not crafted deliberately to present a jarring contrast with government in Washington. ‘I think the American people look at what’s happening in D.C. and see that leaders across the board are not doing what they were elected to do,’ Jindal said, lamenting that national politicians — and, chiefly, President Obama — were ‘not solving the big challenges, the structural challenges, facing our country.’ Jindal … repeatedly declined to say how much blame he apportions to Congress in general, or House Republicans in particular. … The sweeping changes he suggested included a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, term limits for members of Congress, a part-time legislature and a legislative supermajority to either raise taxes or increase spending at a rate faster than population growth. …

“The RGA digital campaign … is dubbed the American Comeback Campaign and will eventually include video appearances by all of the country’s 30 GOP governors … The first video features Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Jindal himself touting accomplishments in their home states and reciting variations on the phrase: ‘Republican governors are the ones who are driving America’s comeback.’ ‘We’ve got to shift attention away from Washington, D.C., to the state capitals,’ said Jindal. … The RGA has spent nearly $7 million [Virginia] so far, compared with $5.2 million the committee spent during the 2009 race that ended in outgoing Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s victory. …

“Next year will bring 36 gubernatorial races. RGA officials will prioritize four in which incumbents face hotly contested races: Florida’s Rick Scott, Michigan’s Rick Snyder, Ohio’s Kasich and Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett. The RGA spent about $40 million collectively electing those four in 2010, half the association’s overall spending. The group is targeting a second tier of races that includes four states in which GOP incumbents don’t yet face serious challengers: Nevada’s Brian Sandoval, New Mexico’s Martinez, Iowa’s Terry Branstad and Wisconsin’s Walker. Committee leaders hope to play offense against a handful of Democratic incumbents: Illinois’ Pat Quinn, Connecticut’s Dannel Malloy and Colorado’s John Hickenlooper. They are also eyeing a pickup in Arkansas, where Gov. Mike Beebe is term-limited, and express confidence about the chances of Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker (who lost a three-way race by 6 points in 2010).” http://goo.gl/7u74l5

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD – “Twitter reveals rip-roaring growth, big losses ahead of IPO,” by Reuters’ Gerry Shih and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco: “Twitter Inc, racing toward the largest Silicon Valley IPO since Facebook Inc's 2012 coming-out party, … gave potential investors their first glance at its financials … when it publicly filed its IPO documents … Twitter reported that revenue almost tripled to $316.9 million in 2012. In the first half of 2013, it posted revenue of $253.6 million but had a loss of $69.3 million.”

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About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.